Sportingly revived but financially on the brink: that’s the harsh paradox of Olympique Lyonnais in the postTextor era. As revealed by L’Équipe, the 2024–2025 accounts are a nightmare: cash flow cut in half, transferrelated debt climbing to €145 million, and above all a record loss of €201 million. But the worst was still hidden… until now.
In total, OL is stuck with €120 million in transfers that never actually happened. Yes, you read that correctly. Three Botafogo players — Igor Jesus (€41.5M), Luiz Henrique (€27M) and Jair Cunha (€18.5M) — were officially the subject of transfer agreements to OL… without ever joining Lyon. The deals were never approved because of the DNCG. But on paper? Lyon had committed to paying.
And John Textor didn’t stop there: even before these ghost transfers were real, he resold the receivables to financial funds, receiving about €100M in cash through factoring. And today, those institutions are turning to the only debtor written down in black and white: Olympique Lyonnais, which now potentially finds itself forced to pay for three players… who never wore the club’s jersey.
Michele Kang is now trying to have these arrangements annulled, but legally, nothing is settled. Lyon is navigating a minefield.
Shady transfers: Textor tells all
Already criticized for months for opaque dealings between his clubs, John Textor snapped. In an interview with the Brazilian channel Canal do TF, he confirmed what many suspected: “Sometimes the amount of a transfer is adjusted to correct a value gap in our relationship.”
A sentence that validates suspicions of triangular schemes between Lyon, Botafogo and Nottingham Forest — three clubs within the same Eagle ecosystem.
We now better understand how Nottingham managed to get out of financial fair play… while Lyon was spending €60M on Mangala and Niakhaté, and Botafogo was selling players far below their real value.
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